


Sigrun’s Links

by orphan_account



Category: Death Stranding (Video Games), Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Character Death, Developing Friendships, Gen, Hope, Nuclear Winter, Race Against Time, Short Story, apocalyptic future, death stranding inspired, mentioned nuclear conflict, mentioned nuclear research
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:09:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23220751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Once there was an explosion. A bang that trapped them underground like rats in abandoned sewers. Drowned by layers of nuclear waste and frozen by a neverending fallout winter. All of this, caused by the fallout of a war of greed and jealousy. Clifford always suspected the catastrophic results of the World Leaders’ thirst for power but he never imagined being alive long enough to witness it himself.
Kudos: 1





	Sigrun’s Links

Once there was an explosion. A bang which gave birth to time and space. Once there was an explosion. A bang which set a planet spinning in its place. Once there was an explosion. A light that created light and the human race. And then there was another explosion. A darkness that left humanity trapped in a maze.

Trapped underground like rats in abandoned sewers. Drowned by layers of nuclear waste and frozen by a neverending fallout winter. All of this caused by the fallout of a war of greed and jealousy. Clifford always suspected the catastrophic results of the World Leaders’ thirst for power but he never imagined being alive long enough to witness it himself. 

The razor cold blades of the wind distracted him from the burn of his aching muscles. This was the first time when he welcomed the wind on his travels as it was blocking the constant buzzing attack on his hearing by Qadir’s continuous complaining about the weight of the cargo he was carrying. One day he showed up on their headquarters’ steps looking for a job. No one volunteers to go to the surface anymore, it was deemed a certain death years ago. Only fools drunk on courage or those unfortunate enough to have nowhere to go dared to walk the changing landscape on the surface. Qadir was born in a shelter thousands of feet below the surface. He ignored all safety protocols by jumping around on the shifting terrain like he was still between the leaded walls of his home. His parents could afford sheltering him from outside dangers. Clifford couldn’t do the same for his family. Even if they weren’t killed in the last explosion then the winter would’ve surely taken them away.

Winter was the only thing Clifford remembered for the past 12 years. He is glad that it stopped snowing at least. It stopped after the last bomb exploded during a testing accident. A bomb created by the hands of the woman walking right behind him, patiently listening to the relentless wave of Qadir’s speech. Sigrun and her team blindly followed the orders of their higherups in a last effort of repairing the damage of the nuclear conflict. Even after a decade she keeps blaming herself for mistakes she had no control over. As an attempt to atonement she created a network of volunteers to keep humanity alive.

All communications were destroyed after the first global bombing. Dozens of toxic clouds appeared in the atmosphere blocking the light and windstorms shattered roads like spiderwebs in an autumn breeze. Power and electrical stations were scorched by the following explosions and cities were wiped out as easily as some Lego blocks. Now people live separated in small family groups, lonely under a blanket of ice far way from anyone else. But this doesn’t mean food and medicine is available everywhere. Sigrun’s Links have the burden of carrying the essential supplies across iced deserts and snow-capped mountains to these isolated groups.

Sometimes the couriers are too late or they are swallowed by the landscape before completing a delivery. Clifford accepted the fact that many of his friends disappeared on their travels but there weren’t that many curries left and every breathing soul is treasured in their organisation. Clifford and Sigrun’s calculated steps were muffled by the loud thuds of Qadir’s jumping. Clifford’s distress grew as Qadir stomped the ground ignoring the cracks formed in the frozen soil in favour of his retelling of a childhood memory. His carelessness was expected as he refused to follow his training protocol and safety rules. The snow caped mountain cliffs were a death trap compared to the safety of his childhood shelter. A small jump that barely formed a dent in the metal floor could shatter the entire path in front of them.

Sigrun’s warm response was interrupted by the mountain’s chilling cry. Snow raised in small shards of glass as ice split below their feet. A gust of blazing yellow fumes pushed their way through the fault line melting the layers of ice around the crater. Clumps of snow and frozen rocks were swallowed by the vicious roar of the mountain. Land started to cave in as they sprinted towards the edge of the cliff. Clifford leaped over a hidden pit missing the blinding spray of toxic waste. Qadir skidded past Sigrun's sluggish movement in desperation of avoiding the tar like darkness of the crater growing behind them. Years of work in a lab surrounded by radioactive substances took a toll on her body. Dark patches of contaminated cells have formed on Sigrun’s body eating away her stamina and speed. Her afflicted body couldn’t keep up with Clifford's or Qadir’s speed and the scorching sulfuric fumes took away the breath from her lungs. She stumbled across the snowy sludge along the edge of the crater dropping most of the medicine containers on her back. Her next step met only the empty resistance of the void below and Sigrun’s feeble hands failed to support her as she desperately tried to latch on the edge of the crater. Clifford turned around in a futile effort to save Sigrun, but her cries have already been swallowed by the expanding void. He continued running towards the mountain edge where the dull reflection of light outlined Qadir’s position. He was rooted to the ground with an empty stare directed to the disaster behind Clifford. His foolish jumps that awakened the mountain were replaced by an unnerving stillness.

‘Now you know why your parents wouldn’t let you go to the surface. It’s too dangerous.’ said Clifford trying to bring Qadir back from his haze. ‘It’s impossible to predict where the next crater will appear and it’s too dangerous to be dragged into one by fools who refuse to listen to instruction and follow simple training!’ The last words were delivered between short bursts of anger as Clifford struggled to even out his breathing.

The shock of the events silenced Qadir, but he still realised that Sigrun’s fate wasn’t an accident. Even if the crater couldn’t be stopped Sigrun’s life might have been saved if he just followed the rules. All his life Qadir thought that the surface was a better alternative to being trapped in a shelter. In reality the outside was just a labyrinth of traps waiting to swallow him under another layer of earth and ice. He thought that he would never go back to his family, but he always will have the choice to go back. Qadir couldn’t stand looking at the crater anymore as he realised that he unknowingly pushed Clifford’s choice into the void. He knew that Sigrun was like family to Clifford and now his last shelter disappeared into the mountain. 

Clifford continued walking down the slope of the mountain towards their destination. ‘We should hurry. We could still complete the delivery.’ Qadir nodded his head in agreement and followed him down the path. Clifford didn’t dwell too much into Qadir’s silence. He knew that Qadir won’t be able to walk another day in his precious freedom if he couldn’t get over the shock of his actions and their consequences. He blamed Qadir for Sigrun’s death, but he also knew that it could have happened to anyone. It happened to his previous team, but he had to move on and give other families a chance.  
The pair of couriers continued travelling in a tense silence nearing their destination. The explosion delayed their journey by a few days as the crater destroyed the direct route to the foothills. Qadir's mistake would lead to the suffering of families who won’t get enough medicine but at least it eased their descent by loosing a significant amount of their cargo. The young man’s jumpiness was replaced by a currier’s calculated steps mirroring Clifford’s own careful walk. Qadir was also slowed down by a black sulfuric burn on his side. A spot-free skin like Qadir was a rarity among the members of Sigrun’s Links. Clifford almost lost both his hands in a similar accident and the radioactive snow left patches of discoloured cells on his face. 

As they neared the foothills of the mountain the light started to diminish. The usually empty sky was now covered by traces of grey clouds. The mandatory radiation detector of their uniform started its foreboding electric crackling.

Clifford’s momentary shock was disrupted by the slow descent of snowflakes on the hill before them. They bolted towards the hill ignoring the increasing noise of the detector trying to get a better view of the landscape of the valley guarded by the mountain. Clifford’s memory of their destination looked nothing like the disaster in front of them. The valley was levelled to the bedrock and the moulds indicating the entrances to the network of shelters were replaced by a crater. It wasn’t like the endless void in the mountain but like a gunshot of a disastrous calibre in the Earth’s crust. The area around of the crater was stripped of soil and the ice in the valley was replaced by a thin layer of grey dust creating a scar on the spotless whiteness surrounding the valley. 

Qadir tried to continue forward but was stopped by the fanatic warning crackle of the detector. The raising radiation and raising clouds from the crater indicate a recent explosion. However, the presence of grey dust and lack of yellow residue clearly shows that the explosion in front of them was caused by a nuclear bomb and it had no relation to the build up of sulfuric waste in the mountain.  
The mountain blocked their view of the nuclear clouds forming on the horizon but Qadir’s mistakes and Sigrun’s loss probably saved their life. They were too late to save other families but at least they managed to stay alive. Arriving only a few hours earlier meant being trapped in the explosion or being poisoned by the fallout.

The two returned to the mountain following the maze of their paths to the headquarters. They survived this delivery only to pick up another one and head back into the maze until reaching their destination only to return and head back over and over until there would be no need for them to carry the lifesaving link between isolated shelters.


End file.
